Friday, May 24, 2013

Overdue Dreadlock Update!

Oh my, I am seriously overdue for this one! My last update was in September! And I was in sad shape then. By February, my husband had decided to pay for a Professional "Rockstar Loc Lovin Maintenance session" with Rockstar Dreads for me as a birthday gift. We actually made payments in advance to make sure it would be completely paid before the appointment. My "Loctician" even threw in a couple extra hours!

Meanwhile, I stopped using wax at her request.1 I also kept ripping dreads apart from each other. Rae advised the ripping was good. Then I discovered... 2-3 dreadlocks on the right side of my head that had merged so far together I could not separate them! Aww crap. Rae came to our home shortly before my 40th birthday in February. This is how she found my hair:

She split my hair into sections and got started. The main tool she used was a DreadHead HQ Lock Sculpta. She had one other tool she used plus a pair of scissors. Yes, scissors.

I had no idea just how bad my hair was! Despite ripping the dreadlocks apart, the roots were badly matted!

← Before ... ... After →

She had to cut some of the locks to separate them. She said if she'd created them, she wouldn't have done them so thin. I like them, though, and specifically wanted thinner dreadlocks. Here is a very specific example of the difference she was making.

Rae spent close to 7 hours here! We discussed blunted tips. She argued that she'd only blunted tips on a few women and they wanted them undone a week later. She said whispy tips look more feminine.2 It was a bit of a moot point since we didn't have enough time for that anyway. In fact, she started at the back and wasn't able to completely finish the front. She was supposed to stop by one day after work in the following week or two, but never seemed to be available. That bit was rather disappointing. I think she is quitting her day job, though, to do dreadlocks full time!

← Before ... ... After →

Rae had several pointers for me, too! She suggested washing in hot and rinsing in cold. This is contrary to everything I've read, but I can attest to it: it makes dreadlocks lock up faster! She explained how to tie my hair up, which previously I could not seem to figure out. (You have to loop the hair at least twice, not just a basic knot.) She said not to palm roll, going so far as to say that doing so keeps the roots from dreading up on their own. Wait... what? You want me to do less work? Awesome!

As for keeping my dreadlocks separate, she showed me how to run my fingers through my hair (something you wouldn't expect to do in dreadlocks). If the fingers catch in some hair, rip it out (of the dread it is in). This seems easy enough to do daily. I can do it anywhere and its less work than the other upkeep I had been trying to do.

A week later, showing off my freshly maintained and colored
dreadlocks in a crazy up-do at my 40th Birthday Party

I do love how the whispy bits at the bottoms of my dreadlocks look when I'm wearing a crazy up-do. The rest of the time, though, I feel like my hair just looks clumpy (like when hair gets greasy) because the whispy bits are deceiving. I still want blunted tips.

I originally had 64 dreadlocks. I now have 60. I still love my dreadlocks! A relative has recently been griping about how awful they look every time I see her. She is quite rude about it, actually. I've also purchased my own Lock Sculpta, but that is a topic for another post... which hopefully won't take 8 months to write!

1 Some people LOVE waxing dreadlocks, others HATE it. There seems to be no middle ground, though I have no problem with either method.↩

2 Um... because I'm sooo feminine? I haven't even worn makeup in years!↩